The new coupe will powered by a range of V6 engines making up to 520bhp and will be offered with both rear-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive as well as in open-top cabrio form, just as the 911 is.

The announcement was made by the firm’s CEO Harald Wester last week as part of a wide-reaching conference looking to the future of parent company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. In Wester’s presentation the Alfieri, named for the most dynamic of the firm’s founding Maserati brothers, was shown to be arriving around 2016.

The goal is for Maserati to “cover 100 percent of the luxury markets” according to Wester, who also runs Alfa Romeo. To that end the brand will also launch the Levante SUV, likely next year, which was revealed in the presentation to be powered by a mix of V6 petrols and diesels, as well as a V8 petrol. That will give Maserati a rival against Porsche’s incredibly popular Cayenne as well as the Range Rover Sport.

The Maserati Alfieri concept car at the 2013 Geneva motor show

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The Alfieri 2+2 concept was the surprise package of the Geneva motor show earlier this year, wowing crowds with its stunning lines that blended futuristic sculptural forms with retro detailing. That look is likely to be repeated on other models, the brand said at the show.

However Maserati waited until last week to announce the car would make production. It won’t get the concept’s Ferrari-sourced V8, favouring V6-power instead, but Wester did reveal that the Alfieri won’t be a replacement for the bigger, four-seat GranTurismo coupe. That and the related GranCabrio will get replacements of their own to take the Maserati line-up to seven cars including the newly launched Ghibli saloonand the larger Quattroporte saloon.

The hope is the expansion will do big things for sales, which are predicted to rise to 75,000 by 2018 up from 15,400 last year according to Wester. That’s still a long way off Porsche, which is expected to sell over 200,000 cars globally this year on the back of the smaller Macan SUV launch, but it's a huge jump on the mere 6,200 Maserati sold in 2012.